Established | 1982 |
---|---|
Location | 350 Pine Street, Beaumont, Texas 77701 |
Coordinates | 30°05′08.3″N94°05′48″W / 30.085639°N 94.09667°W |
Type | Science, Technology, and History |
Collection size | over 1,400 artifacts dedicated to Thomas Alva Edison |
Owner | Edison Museum, a non-profit education foundation |
Public transit access | BMTS Route #6 (Refinery) Route #7 (South Park) Route #8 (Pear Orchard) |
Nearest parking | Free, adjacent to museum |
Website | Museum website |
The Edison Museum, a science and history museum about the life and inventions of Thomas Edison, is located in Beaumont, Texas at 350 Pine St. on the grounds of Edison Plaza.
The museum building was formerly the Gulf States Utilities Travis Street Power Substation. The power substation came on line in 1929. [1] According to the Texas State Historical Marker in front of the substation building, the substation provided power ranging from street lights to cotton gins to rice irrigation to refineries in spite of The Great Depression. [2]
"...The museum is the only facility of its kind west of the Mississippi River..." [3] Interactive exhibits about Edison, his inventions and innovations, as well as historic artifacts from his life are featured. Featured inventions include the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and some of Edison's early motion pictures. [4] There is also a reference library about Edison. The collection origin is tied to W. Donham Crawford, former CEO of Gulf States Utilities. Crawford was an avid collector of Edison artifacts. The collection was bequeathed to the museum in the early 1980s by Crawford's widow. [5]
The museum is part of a concentration of several museums in the downtown Beaumont area. It is located blocks away from the Tyrrell Historical Library, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Beaumont Children's Museum (temporarily located in the Beaumont Civic Center), and the Fire Museum of Texas.
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.
Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. As the county seat of Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan statistical area, it is located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about 85 miles (137 km) east of Houston. With a population of 115,282 at the 2020 census, Beaumont is the largest incorporated municipality by population near the Louisiana border. Its metropolitan area was the 10th largest in Texas in 2019, and 132nd in the United States.
Garland is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located northeast of Dallas and is a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is located mostly within Dallas County, except a small portion located in Collin and Rockwall counties. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 226,876. In 2019, the population rose to 239,928, making it the 93rd-most populous city in the United States of America and the 12th-most populous city in Texas; by 2020, it had a population of 246,018. Garland is the third largest city in Dallas County by population and has access to downtown Dallas via public transportation including two Dart Blue Line stations and buses.
Thomas Edison State University (TESU) is a public university in Trenton, New Jersey. The university is one of New Jersey's 11 senior public institutions of higher education and one of the first schools in the country designed specifically for adults. Thomas Edison State University offers degrees at the undergraduate and graduate level.
Menlo Park is an unincorporated community located within Edison Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States.
Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and generates and distributes electric power to 3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of $11 billion and employs more than 13,000 people.
Southern California Edison, the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles. However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Imperial Irrigation District, and some smaller municipal utilities serve substantial portions of the southern California territory. The northern part of the state is generally served by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company of San Francisco. Other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California include SDG&E, PacifiCorp, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities.
Entergy Texas is an electric power generation and distribution company headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas. The company was founded in 1911 as Eastern Texas Electric, a holding company for Stone & Webster. On August 25, 1925, Gulf States Utilities Company was incorporated in the state of Texas.
The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, also known as the Menlo Park Museum / Edison Memorial Tower, is a memorial to inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison, located in the Menlo Park area of Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey. The tower was dedicated on February 11, 1938, on what would have been the inventor's 91st birthday.
Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserves Thomas Edison's laboratory and residence, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey, United States. These were designed, in 1887, by architect Henry Hudson Holly. The Edison laboratories operated for more than 40 years. Out of the West Orange laboratories came the motion picture camera, improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery.
Rosenberg Library, a public library located at 2310 Sealy Street in Galveston, Texas, United States, is the oldest continuously operating library in Texas. It serves as headquarters of the Galveston County Library System and its librarian also functions as the Galveston County Librarian.
Beaumont is an Amtrak station in Beaumont, Texas, served by the Sunset Limited service.
The Edward G. Acheson House is a historic house at 908 West Main St. in Monongahela, Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. Probably built about 1870, it is notable as the home of Edward G. Acheson (1856-1931), the inventor of carborundum, and as the likely site of its invention. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
The Fire Museum of Texas is located in a former fire station, the former Central Fire Station, in Beaumont, Texas, built in 1927. The building is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and is an example of the Renaissance Revival. The building houses state-of-the-art interactive fire safety exhibits with a collection of antique fire equipment dating as early as 1856. It also has a two-story interactive playhouse for children to learn fire safety. Another feature is that "...the world's largest working fire hydrant...", a towering twenty-four (24) feet tall, is in front of the building. In addition to the fire hydrant, the museum features the State of Texas Firefighter Memorial, a 9-11 Memorial, and a Firefighter commemorative walkway.
Downtown Beaumont is the central business district of Beaumont, Texas. It is where the city's highrise buildings are located, as well as being the center of government and business for the region. Downtown Beaumont is currently experiencing a renaissance, with streets, sidewalks and historic buildings receiving significant attention.
The Edison Plaza is a 17-story office building in downtown Beaumont, Texas, located at 350 Pine St. The building is downtown's newest and tallest skyscraper. Originally built by Gulf States Utilities as its headquarters in 1982, it serves as the Texas headquarters for its successor, Entergy, Texas; however, Entergy no longer owns the building and leases four floors only out of the 17 in the building. It is erroneously called "The Entergy Building" but its correct name is still Edison Plaza. On the grounds of the Edison Plaza is the Edison Museum. As of November 2015, Capital One acquired signage rights to the building.
The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of The University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st Governor of Texas. The Center collects and preserves documents and artifacts of key themes in Texas and United States history and makes the items available to researchers. The center also has permanent, touring, and online exhibits available to the public. The center's divisions include Research and Collections, the Sam Rayburn Museum, the Briscoe-Garner Museum, and Winedale.
The Edison State Park is located in the Menlo Park section of Edison, New Jersey. It is located on Christie Street, the first street in the world to be lit up by lightbulb, just off Lincoln Highway, near the Metropark Train Station. It covers a total area of 37 acres (0.15 km2). The park commemorates the site where the famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison had his Menlo Park laboratory. In his laboratory, Edison invented over 600 inventions such as the incandescent electric light and the phonograph, the latter being the first object to record and play sound.
The Texas Energy Museum is a museum in Beaumont, Texas in the United States. The museum was formed in 1987 to tell the story of oil through state of the art exhibits including talking robotic characters. The museum opened on January 10, 1990, the anniversary of the Spindletop gusher.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Beaumont, Texas, USA.